In the groove: Ex-Spartan Ager's second career an instant hit

Production company making noise with hip-hop beats

Jun. 28, 2010

Can't beat this for a backup gig: The keyboard and percussion of Maurice Ager's anthem-like track entitled "Jordan" are featured prominently on Michigan State football coach Mark Dantonio's official Web site, www.coachdantonio.com. / Courtesy of Maurice Ager Productions

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No spending sprees here

Maurice Ager has made about $3 million in four years as a pro basketball player, which is a lot less than some of his teammates over the years. But he said he's in great financial shape because of careful planning from day one.

He hired a financial planner in Dallas who put Ager on a monthly allowance and investment plan.

"I've seen too many guys blow their money," Ager said. "They blow it because they have no discipline."

Ager did recently allow himself a $5,000 purchase - a Miko keyboard on which he creates much of his music.

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Maurice Ager still has the recording, tucked away somewhere safe. "Spartan Dawgs" was going to be the Breslin Center intro song for Ager and his high-flying MSU hoops compatriot, Shannon Brown.

Ager came up with the music. They both wrote the lyrics. They both rapped on the track. They never quite got it ready for public consumption.

"Nobody," Ager said with a chuckle, five years after the amateur recording sessions at his campus apartment, "is gonna be hearing that one."

But a lot of people who attend Michigan State sporting events are going to be hearing a lot of Ager in the next year.

Music production was barely a hobby for Ager as an MSU freshman in 2002. It's a full-blown business now, and his alma mater has contracted him to produce as many as 300 hip-hop beats for various uses - even as he makes another run at the NBA after a year out of the league.

"The way I look at it, I definitely have two careers," said Ager, who will play with the New Orleans Hornets' summer league team after stints in Spain and the NBA Development League last year. "Music is my plan for after basketball, but why not get started early?"

It's started and it's moving fast. Moe Ager Productions was registered in April as a Limited Liability Company in the state of Texas (Ager's home has been Dallas since the Mavericks drafted him No. 28 overall in the 2006 NBA draft).

Last week, Ager was in Miami, shopping his wares to Sony executives. The week before that, he was meeting with the best friend and manager of rap giant "50 Cent," discussing the possibility of Ager producing beats for the rapper's G-Unit Productions.

Musical youth

Visitors to MSU football coach Mark Dantonio's official Web site - www.coachdantonio.com - will be greeted immediately by the keyboard and percussion of Ager's anthem-like track entitled "Jordan."

Theme songs for the football and men's basketball teams are in the production stages. The football music is done, just waiting for tailored lyrics and vocals from Detroit rapper "Crimson" - also known as MSU graduate Sam Richardson.

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The songs will be accompanied by videos, with highlights of the teams and play-by-play calls incorporated.

Meanwhile, Ager is churning out new music for various MSU uses, including short video highlight clips that the athletic department often sends out with press releases on individual players.

All for the very low cost of $1,000 for MSU's athletic department. Ager typically shops tracks at $500 apiece.

"People in the industry would say it's insane, but this is such a unique client," said Dan Dugger, a close friend of Ager's from MSU who also serves as his manager and co-agent. "In a way, it's like Moe is giving back to the university. Also, he can see the long-term benefit of this, having his music played in front of 80,000 people each and every weekend."

MSU is looking to use music more, said associate athletic director John Lewandowski, who is negotiating with a local rock band as well. The coaches' official sites are geared largely to catch the eye of prospective recruits.

"It might be an opportunity to kind of grow together," Lewandowski said of MSU's young-and-hip aspirations and Ager's business. "You really could not write a better script."

Over and back

A top recruit from Detroit Crockett High, Ager arrived at MSU in the summer of 2002 and began tinkering with a program called Fruity Loops - software for creating and sequencing drum loops - at a campus computer lab.

It became a serious hobby and by the time Ager had completed four years and scored 1,554 points for the Spartans, he was known around campus as a burgeoning music producer.

Ager said his primary influences are popular rappers and producers Dr. Dre and Eminem, but he listens to just about everything, including techno, rock and country. He said "unique drums and a great melody" are the keys to a successful beat.

He can't quite explain how he is able to create them.

"I don't know. That's the blessed part," Ager said. "You've got to have a great ear for it, and then it's just hard work."

That work has not overtaken Ager's drive to return to the NBA. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard played sparingly through a season and a half with the Mavericks, then was traded to the New Jersey Nets.

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After a year and a half on the bench there, Ager's initial rookie contract was up, and he opted for sure money in Europe's top league - the Spanish ACB - rather than the uncertainty of an NBA training camp.

Dugger, a 2008 MSU graduate in journalism with a minor in Spanish, accompanied Ager to the town of Sevilla and acted as his manager and assistant.

Things did not go as planned there, and Ager and the club parted on good terms in January because of "playing time issues," Dugger said.

Another run

Having cleared about $500,000 despite the shortened contract, Ager quickly found a starting job with the Maine Red Claws of the NBDL, playing alongside former MSU teammate Paul Davis.

Ager excelled, averaging 15.6 points and 4.5 rebounds. He has worked on getting lighter and quicker in the offseason and said he's down to 188 after weighing as much as 215 as a pro.

Ager has a new agent for NBA dealings, former Flint AAU coach Chris Grier Luchey. Dugger and Mick Sandhu of Detroit will represent Ager if a return to Europe is necessary.

That's not the plan. Former MSU running mate Brown has a story Ager would like to emulate.

Drafted No. 25 by Cleveland in the same 2006 draft, Brown was bounced to Chicago, then Charlotte and close to an exit when he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Brown has secured a niche and back-to-back championship rings.

Ager is hoping New Orleans, which just traded former MSU great Morris Peterson, will be his landing spot.

"I'm very comfortable where my basketball career is," Ager said. "Being out of the league for a year made me a better overall player. My basketball IQ is up, I'm playing with teammates better, my patience is better. And body-wise, I'm the best I've ever been."

A typical day for Ager involves hours of lifting, shooting and drills in the morning. He often serves in the soup kitchen at the Main Street Church of Christ in downtown Dallas, then retreats to the studio in his house to put hours into a post-basketball career that is well under way - and a long way from "Spartan Dawgs."